Brian Eno to advise the Liberal Democrats

Those of us who have followed the career of Brian Eno are delighted to hear that he is now a special adviser to the Liberal Democrat party, perhaps we can look forward to a bold move to Party Political broadcasts that are purely ambient, with unfocussed yet very arty photos, for the duration. I enjoyed the slowed down country and western that he used in Apollo, thrilled to the slowed down Pachelbel Canon he used in Discrete Music, surely this man can connect to the youth of today, with the plangent tones of the Smurfs slowed to a glacial pace, revealing their inner beauty and discordant elements. If that does not speak to the youth of today, then I for one, don't know what will.

This is a man with a bold vision, he left Roxy Music just before they got successful, to release a bunch of solo records that no one has heard of, many of them on his own Obscure label. Having built up some success with his solo stuff, he then stopped writing music with words, and ignored endless calls, "please Brian can we have some more songs again, please, please", finally getting round to writing songs again, decades later, by which time, no one was terribly bothered anymore.

Don't we all want our political leaders to be more like Bono and U2, well clearly the Liberal Democrats have found their man, the man who was not content with driving the Talking Heads to new peaks of pretension, knew that that was not enough, and then brought us U2, the very summit of wrap around sunglasses wearing musical pretentiousness.

A man of the people, his diary details how he avoids the general public including his fans, and includes a couple of urine related anecdotes, only one of which I can really bring myself to repeat here. This is a man who has actually peed on a Duchamp urinal!

This is a man who famously burst a lung having sex, his credentials for the post of youth adviser, are self evident.

Perhaps this is what the country needs, we need to articulate our position in the world clearly, and nothing does this like a major Art Statement,

the KLF famously burnt a million pounds, well politicians have been getting away with this for years, without even providing much shock or entertainment.

We need pomp, we need grandeur, we need men who aren't afraid to wear make up and dress up like women, we need more references to modern revolutionary Peking opera, we need Eno.


PS - I should disclose to the reader that I own substantial numbers of aforesaid Eno's records, am not at all peeved that he never replied to my geeky fanboy letter twenty two years ago, felt that the god-like Talking Heads went off the boil with Remain in Light, and find U2 singles moderately catchy.